fun games everyday

Batman: Arkham Asylum

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You've heard of Batman no doubt, but if you don't read comics, it's
conceivable that you might be unfamiliar with Arkham Asylum. The iconic
psychiatric hospital is essentially Gotham City's Alcatraz, and it has
housed just about every villain Batman has ever tangled with at one time
or another. Now, thanks to Eidos and developer Rocksteady, Arkham is
also the setting for a great third-person action game in which the
lunatics take over the asylum and only you can stop them. As Batman, you
not only get to go toe-to-toe with thugs in fast-paced punch-ups, but
you also employ satisfying stealth tactics, play with great gadgets,
solve some remarkable riddles, and do a decent amount of detective work.
In short, you get to do all of the things that you want to when you don
a Batman costume in a game, provided you weren't hoping to get behind
the wheel of the batmobile.

Because just about everything else needs to be unlocked, the first time
you boot up Batman: Arkham Asylum, your first port of call will
inevitably be the Story mode. Here, you learn that Batman has captured
Joker, and as the lengthy intro sequence plays out, you see him being
returned to the asylum under Batman's watchful eye. Joker doesn't seem
at all perturbed by his predicament, and it quickly becomes apparent
that he has deliberately allowed himself to be captured as part of a
grand plan that involves taking control of Arkham Island and throwing a
party there with Batman as the guest of honor. Clearly it's a trap, but
as Batman (and as someone who demands more than two minutes of gameplay
before the credits roll), you just can't walk away from it.

The combat in Arkham Asylum never gets overly complicated, though the
number of moves and attacks at your disposal increases quite
dramatically as you progress through the Story mode, earn experience
points, and subsequently spend those points on acquiring new combo moves
and gadgets. Throws, takedowns, and even batarang attacks can be
incorporated into your combos this way, but you never need to press more
than two buttons simultaneously, and the timing of your moves doesn't
have to be particularly precise. Fighting against mobs of up to a dozen
enemies or so is a blast, and while they're not smart enough to all just
jump on you at once, they're not stupid either. Given half a chance,
thugs will pull pipes from walls to attack you with, pick up boxes to
throw at you, and recover weapons from fallen colleagues. Fortunately,
there's one weapon that your foes seem blissfully unaware of but which
Batman is incredibly comfortable with: the environment.

Your surroundings don't always have a role to play in combat, but during
large set piece encounters (many of which can be replayed against the
clock in Challenge mode), using them to your advantage is practically a
requirement. Picture this: You walk into a large room where eight
gun-carrying enemies have been instructed by Joker to keep an eye out
for you. You can't leave the room until every single one of them is
unconscious, and going toe-to-toe with them isn't an option because--at
least as far as this game is concerned--bullets are Batman's kryptonite.
What do you do? Job one is to stay out of sight, which can often be
accomplished by crouching atop gargoyles mounted high on the walls that,
while an unusual interior design choice, make near-perfect hiding spots
from which to survey the scene using your X-ray-like detective vision.
From a vantage point like that, you can perform glide kicks to swoop
down and floor enemies passing nearby, perform awesome "inverted
takedowns" to grab guys as they pass directly beneath you and leave them
hanging on ropes for their comrades to see, and throw batarangs that
serve a number of useful purposes. Or, if you need to move, you can use
your grapnel gun to zip to another location. Just be sure to suspend
your disbelief as you do so because you're invisible to the enemy when
you're in transit.

As you take the controls, Arkham Asylum wastes no time throwing you into
the thick of the action. Almost immediately, you're rushed by a few of
Joker's goons and encouraged to knock them out using both basic attacks
and counters. Using just two buttons, you can perform a huge number of
moves from Batman's superbly animated repertoire, and it isn't at all
difficult to string together combos worthy of Hollywood's finest fight
coordinators. That's because for the most part, at least early in the
game, combat requires you to do little more than mash the attack button
and then hit the counter button anytime you notice an enemy with an "I'm
about to attack you" icon above his head. None of the thugs that you
encounter pose much of a threat individually, but you rarely encounter
fewer than three or four of them at once, and often, you'll be up
against six or more. Furthermore, the vanilla thugs are joined by
enemies with knives, cattle prods, and guns later on, who force you to
raise your game and incorporate stun attacks and evasive rolls into your
deadly dance routine. Boss battles against supervillains like Scarecrow
and Harley Quinn are definitely among the game's highlights, though
it's a little disappointing that there aren't more of them. One
supervillain in particular makes a number of appearances, but you never
actually get to fight him.